interview on "meet the press" this morning retired general and former secretary of state colin powell says just because he endorsed the president's run in 2008 doesn't mean he will necessarily back him in as i di 2012 comes along, i will look at the needs of the country, the situation as i see it and evaluate both candidates and see which i think is best able to lead the country. >> and we have more from the white house. good sunday morning, mike. >> reporter: good morning. >> what advice did does colin powell have for the president? >> reporter: it's interesting, don't forget that colin powell is a republican, something he reminded david gregory this morning on "meet the press." he was the secretary of state in the bush administration. he's been the national security adviser in the white house and of course the chairman of the joint chiefs. but he did surprise many people and anger many on the right, of course. felly republicans when in 2008 he -- fellow republicans when in 2008 he did come out endorsing barack obama for the president. he makes the point that we've

got to get past the midterm elections. he's not the only one. before we talk about 2012, that will come soon enough, just 45 days from now. powell points that out but said the following about the sorts of thing that he would -- sort of advice that he would give president obama as he turns this corner. >> i think he has lost some of the ability to connect that he had during the campaign. and it is not just me picking on the president. it's reflected in the polling. some of the anxiety and anger that you see out there i think comes from a belief on the part of the american people, whether it's correct or incorrect, and the white house would say it's incorrect that not enough attention, his singular focus should be on employment. wall street got fixed. they're getting their bonuses back. we fixed the auto industry, it's starting to function, but people are still seeing a 9.6% unemployment rate. they're losing their homes. their homes are under water. mortgages can't be paid. short sales. they are anxious, and they are expecting more out of the president. i think he has to do more with

respect to reducing the deficit and also being careful about putting more and more programs, more and more rocks into that knapsack because the american people are looking for singular focus on the economy and unemployment. >> reporter: that is a common complaint, heard not only from colin powell and of course many conservatives, their concern about the deficit. but also from democrats in the sense that the president has spent a lot of time in his first 18 months of office, pushing through his health care reform, his financial reform package. meanwhile, the unemployment rate continued to go up, alex. we know it's now at 9.6%. a lot of people wish that he had spent more time focusing on the economy, something we should do as we approach the midterm elections. >> indeed. it is topic number one and then some. thank you. >> reporter: okay. breaking news, the spokesperson for the family of sarah shourd said the woman held in iran is back on u.s. soil this morning. shourd's companions including

her fiance are still being held in iran. the three were detained in july, 2009, along the iran-iraq border. nbc's bureau chief is uniquely here in studio with us. good day. glad to have you. >> reporter: good morning, alex. >> what is the latest you're hear being sarah shourd's arrival in the u.s.? >> reporter: she is back. she was meant to get a direct flight from oman to new york, but apparently all these flights were backed up because of the u.n. general assembly in new york. she had to go via washington. her spokesman was quick to point out that this had nothing to do with the debrief or anything in washington. and she's due in new york a little later today where she is going to give a press conference at about 3:00 local time. >> okay. that means she's got five hours to travel here and get settled in. do you have any idea what she is going to say? particularly based on what she has said? she's been very careful with what she has said so far. >> reporter: and i think she's going to continue being very careful. i'm sure she's going to appeal for her colleagues and her fiance to be freed. appeal to the compassionate

grounds maybe to president ahmadinejad who's coming here today. i don't think she's going to say anything more than that. she has to be very careful while her two colleagues are still in iran, not to jeopardize their future there. not to -- she probably not going to talk about her experiences in jail there. so it's going to be a very, very guarded statement. i'm sure. >> you know, are you hearing anything new about shane and josh and their fate, how they are doing? for some time at least we had some swiss mediators, they would get this there and see them on humanitarian efforts to make sure they were physically okay. what do we know? >> we know very little. i'm sure sarah will tell authority what she knows, but it's not going to be public. what we know from iran is the chief judiciary said they have been charged with espionage. their file will go to the revolutionary court, and they're going to have to face trial there. they've said that sarah shourd has to come back and face trial. let's not forget, she's out on half a million dollars bail. so the future looks ominous for

them. they are going to face trial. they're still being accused of being spies, and the iranian media constantly refers to them as spies. so it's a long road ahead for them, and their future still hangs in the balance. >> all right. good to see you here. thank you very much. bracing for hurricane igor. the storm is listed as a category 1, but it is still considered a very large and powerful hurricane. igor is expected to strike per maude later today -- bermuda later today. more details now from the weather channel's jeff morrow. good morning to you. what's it looking like? all right. i decided to give you a big visual satellite picture of what you would see, say, if you were up in the space station looking right down on it. there's bermuda, that little black dot in the middle of the yellow circle here. and there's the center of igor, just to the south of it, and it's going to be moving right by bermuda here as we head through the next 12 to 14 hours or so. and it's probably going to give bermuda -- you're already seeing

tropical storm-force winds there. it's probably going to have at least tropical storm-force winds if not hurricane-force winds for the next 18 to 24 hours. that kind of wind for that prolonged period of time is probably going to cause some damage on the island. maximum sustained winds right now, category 1 strength. that's the good news. the whole hurricane has weakened. but it's such a big hurricane in size that it will be pummelling that island with those 85 mile-per-hour winds for quite some time. now where is it going to head from here? well, after it passes by bermuda, it will stay off the east coast and canadian coast and head out into the north atlantic and eventually lose its tropical characteristics. so we'll finally be able to say good-byeda and good riddance to igor. as far as in the states, we've got another hot, summery day over the south. atlanta, 93. jackson, mississippi, 97. houston, 94. rain across south texas. in the northeast, though, a little taste of maybe some indian summer as you mentioned

earlier, alex. not bad at all. high pressure will hold along the northeast coast. so new york city, up to a pleasant 79. 85 in d.c. a little bit of rain from pittsburgh west across the chicago area. alex? >> okay. jeff morrow, thank you very much, from the weather channel. still ahead, we will get a live report from the weather channel's jim cantore. that's coming up in a few minutes. look at that pounding surf right there. five adults and eight children are missing in los angeles county, and authorities are concerned that they could be involved in cult-like activity. authorities believe that group is made up of el salvador donor immigrants led by this woman. nbc's kristen welker joins us from burbank. good morning. i hear you just obtained new information. can you share that with us? >> reporter: that's right, good morning to you, alex. i certainly can. we're learning more about what the search is going to look like. officials saying they're going to be out in full force searching for those 13 missing people. but what's interesting is that they're going to be focusing on

remote areas in the mountainous regions surrounding palmdale, about an hour north of los angeles. so again, they will be out in full force. we are planning to helicopters and a lot of people on foot trying to recover these people. five adults, eight children, ages 3 to 17, missing. and investigators say they believe they're immigrants from el salvador. they were out last night in palmdale, that's where many of the missing live, searching, trying to recover them. no luck. apparently, two huh husbands -- two husbands of two of the missing women came forward saying they were quite concerned. they brought police a purse. in that purse, cell phones, personal documents, and some really disturbing letters. take a listen to how a spokesperson with the l.a. county sheriff's department described those letters. >> they left behind notes saying that they were going to go visit their deceased relatives, that they were going to go meet jesus. notes that indicated that they wanted to go to the next life. no words such as suicide or taking our own life were used at

all. but the indications seem that that may be a possibility. >> reporter: now again, the leader of this group, according to investigators, they believe, is 32-year-old raina mariso marisomariso marisol chicas. they don't know the religious affiliation, but they met in church and branched out, practicing more unorthodox beliefs and practices. alex? >> and three may be sisters? >> reporter: that's right. we're learning a little bit more about who these people actually are. three of them may be sisters. we believe they might be just from a small community. neighbors are starting to speak out and are reportedly saying that these are simple people, they're people who don't have a lot of education, possibly didn't graduate from high school, and investigator are describing a lot of the missing as vulnerable. so that's one of the reasons why they're so concerned. in addition to these eight

children who are missing, they believe that many of the adults are really in a vulnerable place right now. alex? >> all right. kristen welker, thank you for the update. she's a rising star of the tea party, but it's what chris tonig teen o'donnell said years -- christine o'donnell said years ago that's creating buzz. and when can bp say the well is sealed. maybe you want to provide meals for the needy. or maybe you want to help when the unexpected happens. whatever you want to do, members project from american express can help you take the first step. vote, volunteer, or donate for the causes you believe in at membersproject.com. take charge of making a difference. challenge the need for such heavy measures with olay. new regenerist micro-sculpting serum for firmer skin in 5 days.

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residents of bermuda are preparing for a hit by hurricane igor. and the worst of that storm was expected to reach the island later today. people are not taking any chances. they've boarded up their homes

and businesses. the weather channel's jim cantore's in bermuda, in the middle of it, with the latest. what can you tell us? >> reporter: like, we're getting smoked right now -- alex, we're getting smoked right now. winds gusting to 65 miles per hour. we've been sustained at tropical storm force for the last three hours. power's going on, trees are coming down. at one point we had 3,650 customers without power. that number's been reduced to 2,500. now that the winds are up as high as they are, there's no way that the vehicles can get out there. you can barely see. visibility is probably less than a half mile now because the rain is coming down so heavily. where i'm standing on this boardwalk, you used to be able to walk to the beach. a couple more steps and i'm a part of the atlantic ocean. we'll stop right there. you see obviously some of the vegetation that's here, obviously swaying in the winds. visibility, again, very, very poor as a result of the heavy rain that has accompanied rain bands. so the more and more we get into this -- and we're not even through the worst of this yet. alex, if we come back at this

time tomorrow morning, we could be in the same kind of weather. that's how long this is going to last. the worst of it coming in tonight around midnight when the center of circulation is going to be at its closest point to bermuda. there will be more power losses, there will be certainly more power poles that will be taken down and customers will be losing power as we go through the night tonight. so far, so good, though. as far as we're concerned here, we're going to hunker down at the elbow beach hotel and give you updates as often as we can. back to you. >> yeah. i tell you, it's incredible watching your stuff. how about the winds and flying debris? how much are you worried about that? >> reporter: well, right now the winds are on shore, so they're coming from the ocean. unless there's something out there i don't know about, we should be okay. but what -- as i look inland, all the beautiful landscape and palm trees, the big sea and tropical vegetation, i haven't seen much of that flying off. i don't see anything laying around. that's good. you know what, we just started this. we're going to gust -- there's no doubt in my mind we're going to gust to over 100 miles per

hour. that's the stuff as people get weary, you know, getting into the 20th, 24th hour of dealing with this thing, when they get out tomorrow, if they're still out in these winds, that's when the biggest danger is going to be posed. people need to stay inside, hunker down. and ride this one out. you know, we're going to ride it out at the -- at the safe confines of a door to the hotel, which is pretty much a bunker, thank good not. i tell you -- thank goodness. i tell you, i can't imagine it as a 125 miles per hour hurricane, it's bad enough at 100. 125 miles per hour, i can't imagine. >> we'll hit you up next hour and get a checkup. you take care. let's go to washington and the president working to firing up his base, a base that is largely drained of its excitement about politics, according to polls. and the congressional black caucus fundraiser last night the president told the crowd the last election was a changing of the guard, and now it's time to guard the change. but at the same time, he acknowledged the uphill battle he's got ahead.

>> it's not surprising, given the hardships we're seeing all across the land. that a lot of people may not be feeling very energized, very engaged right now. a lot of folks may be feeling like politics is something that they get involved with every four years when there's a presidential election. but they don't see why they should bother the rest of the time. >> i'm joined live by patricia murphy, capitol hill bureau chief and columnist for politicsdaily.com. good morning. what can the president do to address this enthusiasm gap? >> well, i think he's doing just about the only thing he can do right now. the president knows that he had really lost a lot of the those who brought him into office. there's a gap among others who helped him get into office, the obama voters who didn't vote a lot before, younger voters, african-american voters, gay

activists. they had not been to the polls in huge numbers in the years previous. president obama knows he needs to get people out to the polls this year in order to hold on to some of these races. he's trying to fire up that base, and doing that, what he's saying to these people is saying, i know you're not happy now, but just remember how bad it used to be when the republicans were in charge. and it wasn't that long ago. he wants to make it a discussion not about his presidency but a discuss of a choice between his presidency or the george bush presidency. i know you're in trouble now, but guess who got us into trouble is what he was saying. it was george bush and the republicans. do you want to take a chance that they'll get back into office. they're depressed. >> you talk about the uphill nature of the battle. if you look at the associated press, 26% of democrats are excited about politics. you care that with 80% of democrats who were excited november of 2008. i mean, is this message of, look, go with us because you don't want to go with them, they're the ones that put us into this mess.

is that going to be enough? >> reporter: well, it hasn't been enough so far. we look at the polling and numbers that show that people who were identifying themselves as democrats two years ago are not identifying themselves as democrats anymore. they are not going to feel any kind of a big need to go out and save their democratic congressman from getting defeated. so they need to come up with a new message or at least come up with a message that says i know you're not too happy now, but don't take the chance that we're going to go backwards. he talks about, you know, put it in d to go forward, r to go in reverse. that hasn't helped much so far. if the president is going to get people to the polls, i think he needs to do more. he needs to do it more vocal and needs to come up with a stronger message. it's not working so far. >> patricia, let's continue with the scrutiny of christine o'donnell, the newly minted candidate in delaware. there are developments that include bill marr digging up a tv clip from a 1999 show where o'donnell says she "dabbled in witch aircraft."

and -- witchcraft." and she bowed out of two interviewsed it but her campaign says it's due to scheduling conflicts. her candidates, how strong -- her candidakancandidacy, how st? >> we don't know how strong it's going to be. we know she was underestimated in the republican primary upon mainstream republicans completely wrote her off. even though some of her statements that she's made in the past sound really, really kooky, when she's in front of a tv camera, she's gifted. she's a great communicator. and what she says today isn't crazy. what she's saying today is -- she's not talking about wit witchcraft, she's talking about the size of government, government spending, and those are messages that voter are respo -- voters are responding to. she may have more of these really bizarre comments that she made in the past. but the democrats are going to have to start rolling those out and rolling them out strongly to bring her back down. she is not only making an impact, she's raised about $2

million since she won last week. she's going to be formidable regardless of what happens from now on. >> okay. politicsdaily.com's patricia murphy, good to you, thank you. new numbers come out this week on the housing market and why analysts say we could see a ray of hope from them. here's hoping on that, right? tod and wear hats. i was always the hat guy. i can't even tell you how much it's changed my life. [ male announcer ] only rogaine is proven to regrow hair in 85% of guys. no more hats. [ male announcer ] stop losing. start gaining.

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time to face the pollen that used to make me sneeze... my eyes water. but now zyrtec®, the fastest 24-hour allergy relief, comes in a liquid gel. zyrtec® liquid gels work fast, so i can love the air®. this hour we're waiting to hear about a final test on the blown-out oil well in the gulf of mexico. after pumping in cement to seal it from the bottom, this test is the last step needed before the well can finally be declared dead. meanwhile, many of the disaster-weary residents who rely on the gulf to make a living are still trying to rebuild amid the damage left behind from that massive oil spill. in afghanistan, the vote counting has begun following this weekend's parliamently elections. turnout was low saturday as voters dodged more than 60 rocket strikes and 30 bombings that killed 14 people. the u.s. ambassador in afghanistan talked about concerns about security at new

polling stations. >> in term of security, you said that yesterday some of the polling stations that were agreed to open did not because of -- some were because of security, some were because of the logistics. but of the 5,800 polling stations that were supposed to open, we think anywhere from 92 to 95% did. given that the -- we've got a very ruthless enemy out there, the taliban force that said their goal of -- was to shut this election down, that's impressive. >> officials are investigating numerous reports of ballot stuffing and fraud. that vote count is not expected to be complete until the end of october. it's not only new candidates who see opportunity in the tea party, a number of time-tested republicans, some with moderate records, are suddenly embracing the grassroots movement. in fact, many have run failed campaigns in the past. after reshaping their focus, they're now casting themselves as outsiders bent on changing politics as usual.

james helen reports on the tea party movement for politico. james joins me now. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. >> senate candidate christine o'donnell comes to mind. she's casting herself as an outsider but has been running for office for years. so how are these transitions taking place? >> reporter: it's the year of the perennial candidate. all of these people who have tried to be part of the establishment, tried to run in past years run again in a normal year. they might be the candidate that gets 10%, but when there's this incredible conservative rage out there, people want anyone in delaware but mike sasle and chris tonight -- cassle and christine o'donnell is the other one on the ballot. she positions her to take advantage of the voter anger in 2006 when she ran for the republican nomination, she lost in a three-way contest and staged a write-in candidate for the election. she got vaporized by joe bidenent 2008. for her the third time is the charm. >> in some cases tea party

groups have embraced candidate without digging into their past. how risky is this for the tea party? >> reporter: it's risky because in a place like alaska, you can have someone like joe miller who becomes the tea party darling because sarah palin recommended him to national tea party groups. but all sort of material has come out from when he ran and failed in a contest for the state legislature back in 2004. where he presented himself with a much more moderate record than he is now. and in 2010, in the year of the tea party, heats repackaged -- he's repackaged himself as very much a tea party candidate. >> yeah. you know, getting elect sudden one thing, governing is something entirely different. are there concerns by tea party supporters that candidates might edge back toward the middle if they win? >> reporter: that's absolutely a factor in. a place like new hampshire, charlie bass, six-term congressman, got kicked out of office in 2006, running for his old seat. he was very much a moderate when he was in office. this year, he's run as a tea party candidate, but many members of the tea party are very skeptical that if he gets back to congress he's not

actually going to pursue the agenda he's promised in the republican primary. >> yeah. you know, on friday, we heard some leading republicans strike a more conservative tone at the value voters summit in washington. do you think we can expect to see major figures like mitt romney, perhaps, hop on the tea party bandwagon ahead of the 2012 presidential race? >> i think that they're going to have to. mitt romney understands that if he's going to win in 2012 he's going to need this of these tea partiers, and a lot of that conservative energy out there. we've seen with delaware, mike casssel this week, people perceived as not conservative enough get ruthlessly attacked by the right wing. the incentives are very much for the leading 2012 contenders, especially the ones closer to the center to move right to placate and please this base which is so critical in the early primary states. >> politico's james hoghman. thank you very much. pope benedict gears up to say good-bye to britain. a live report on this, his last day of the historic visit.

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let's go to politics now. christine o'donnell's gop primary win in delaware is keeping the tea party in the spotlight. david gregory asked former president bill clinton on his take on the tea party and its supporters. >> a lot of the swloerts are voting for the -- voters who are voting for the tea party candidates have really good impulses. that is, they believe that for years and years and years the people with wealth and power or government power have done well, and ordinary people have not. that's true. the question is, what are the specifics, what really matters is what we're going to do. and right now, they've elected a lot of people who are articulate and attractive. but it's not clear what their

specifics are. the gentleman that beat senator mccaskey in alaska, as i understand it, said that he thought unemployment compensation was unconstitutional. while putting ten million more people if bread lines is not my idea of bringing the economy back or balancing the budget. we need to hear more from them about where they stand on the republican party's agenda. the republican leaders in washington, they've got a big agenda. they want to basically dismantle the federal authority except when it comes to defense and laying concrete. and cut tack for the wealthiest -- cut taxes for the wealthiest americans and turn power to the kind of folks who got us in trouble in the first place. i want to know where they stand, and we don't yet. >> you can watch david gregory's entire interview with president bill clinton when "meet the press" reairs at 2:00 p.m. eastern on sunday. today pope benedict wraps up his four-day visit to the u.k. new information to tell you about. six men who were arrested in connection with a terror plot have been released by

authorities. meanwhile, the pope said mass this morning in birmingham, marking the 70th anniversary of the blitz with a personal recollection of the nazi regime. nbc has more from london. good morning to you, nina. apparently this pope has a particular history with the nazi regime from his boyhood days in germany, doesn't he? >> reporter: he does, that's right. good morning to you, alex. he was forced to serve in the hitler youth when he was 14, and today in his ceremony to beatify a prominent anglical priest who converted to the catholic church, the pope benedict made another gesture to heal some of the rifts this we've seen over the past century. he was talking about the blitz, which is, of course, the battle of britain which is, of course, when london was famously bombed by the german group. the german-born pope said he

recalled how many britains were sacrificed for resisting what he called an "evil ideology." that statement is of course important given the pope's own history, but it's not the only statement he's made to try and heal rifts made during the visit. he's met in historic meetings with the anglican church leader, bishop of canterbury. you remember that famously 500 years ago the two churches split in a famous schism when king henry viii decided he should be the new head of the protestant british church. it's been a very eventful meeting. heels also made an enormously important -- he's also made an enormously important statement about the child abuse scandal that's rocked the catholic church throughout much of his time. he expressed yesterday his deep sorrow for the crimes committed by some catholic priests on children. he also spoke in words this were very strong. he mentioned the shame and

humiliation the situation had caused to the church and also the numerous victims. alex? >> nina, what about this threat of terror during his visit? six men, they were arrested. now they're free, what's behind that? >> reporter: that's right, alex. well, these men were arrested in a series of dorm raids on friday morning. and they were street cleaners. now it seems as though the police forces in london may have overreacted to what was simply a joke. in the staff canteen when men were preparing for their shift. in any case it encouraged the secure team to beef up security in a discreet manner throughout the pope's visit. nonetheless, thankfully for many who had turned out to be pope benedict xvi along the way as he teammated across the british isles, he didn't -- traveled across the british isles, he

didn't change his busy schedule and tended to the youngest in his flock. >> all right. nina dos santos in london. thank you. the nation of chile is reminding 33 trapped miners they have not been forgotten. as chile celebrated the bicentennial of the independence day, a special message went to the miners. the president said he wished they were there to celebrate and assured them the rescue work was moving forward. they were given a special meal for the holiday. the federal reserve bank meets to discuss interest rates and what can be done to jumpstart the economy. it's a big week for the housing market as home sales and home building are expected to rise. while permits for future home construction and home prices, that's expected to fall. joining us from washington is financial reporter neil irwin with the "washington post." good morning again to you, neil. >> reporter: good morning, alex. >> this article that you recently wrote suggests that -- just a touch of inflation would actually boost the economy and

normally people wouldn't go there, but you to, why? >> reporter: well, you know, we're running at a rate of inflation that's well below the trend, well below what the federal reserve is shooting for. consumer prices have only risen 1.2% over the last year. .9% if you take out food and energy. you know, what we want to see over the long term is somewhere around 1.5% to 2% inflation. what would happen if we were able to, you know, through monetary stimulus, whatever happened, get high er inflation is that would make it more manageable to pay you the debts that we face as american. it would also make it -- give more incentive to busy and consumers to spend money -- on to businesses and consumers to spend money instead of sitting on it. if you're a business and the value of the dollar is in the bank or losing money, you're more likely to invest than otherwise. those are reason for higher inflation. not super high, but 2% would put us back n better shape than the weak economy we're facing. >> the three housing reports, i mentioned the top here, what do we expect this week? >> reporter: the trend looks like it's going to be a rise in home sales activity.

existing home sales and new home sales are expected to rise. pricing seems soft, maybe declining a little bit. it's kind of a bifurcated situation where we're having a rebound from really low levels of home purchases, but that's not enough to drive prices up. >> you think people are looking at what's out there, saying okay, this is a good deal. the mortgage rates are great right now. if i'm going to buy, this is the time to buy? >> reporter: in housing, the government pulled out all the stops to stimulate housing in late 2009, early 2010. there of a home buyers tax credit, low mortgage rates, a lot of policies in place to try and encourage homeownership. and -- those policies are starting to dissipate some. you don't have that tax credit, and so we're adjusting to the new world of housing without though props from the government. can we move forward in a housing sector that's had a lot of subsidies, and is it going to havea men in the future. >> you would think the all-time low mortgage rates would have jumpstarted sales. >> reporter: you would. but we've had pretty low mortgage rate for more than a year now, year and a half.

so the fact that they've dropped a bit hasn't been enough to bring new buyer in the marketplace. what happened is with all the subsidies including the home buyers tax credit, pulled forward some of the home buying activity that would be happening other wii. low mortgage rates a -- otherwise. low mortgage rates alone haven't been enough to fix the market. >> what is a lagging indicator to the health of the economy? >> reporter: normally it can be a leading indicator. normally you might expect housing to be a rebound that drives the recovery. that doesn't look like what's going to happen in this recovery. we have an overhang of vacant, foreclosed homes, that that was not only a driver this recession but seep to be something that's going to lag as we head into the recovery. >> thank. good to see you. what the democrats want to hear from the president ahead of the mid-terms. me neither.

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rip current warnings have been issued from florida to massachusetts today as hurricane igor churns up the surf along the east coast. in some areas, igor could produce up to ten-foot waves. that hurricane is headed for bermuda, but it is such an intense storm that it poses a serious threat right here to the east coast. the weather channel's eric fisher's in charleston, south carolina, with more on this. let's get a check of the surf right now. all looks so calm, eric. but that can be deceiving. >> reporter: you're right on the money right there. days like today and storms like these really creep up, and can be so dangerous in a sneaky kind of way. you look behind, it looks like a fabulous beach day. we have blue skies, it's warm outside, it's the last sunday of the summer. we've had waves about five to eight feet so far. we are moving toward low tide now. as the waves have been decreasing in size, they were much higher when we got here earlier. high tide at 5:30. underneath all those waves and the seemingly calm condition, we

do have those rip currents. now igor was a massive, massive storm, just a couple of days ago, a category 4 storm. and even though the winds have decreased now, all of that energy, all these swells were generated when it was that incredibly intense storm. and so now that they're moving on to the shoreline, we get rip currents setting up. basically waves get pushed ashore, they have to exit along the shoreline somewhere else, and that's where you get the pull. two people did pass away in the caribbean and that was because of rip currents, people getting pulled out to sea. hurricane fabian was the last storm to directly affect bermuda, that, too, led to aa fatality along the east coast. these are avoidable situations for sure. basically you just beat it by not going into the water too deep. we have seen a number of suffer surf -- surfers out here. most kids going in did knee deep and that's about it. we want people to be safe because we will have dangerous rip currents up and down the east coast.

alex? >> it's great that you're giving us the heads up on all that, thank you very much. president obama and his family have returned from the sunday church services this morning. the first family left the white house on foot before 9:00 for st. john's episcopal church. the gospel reading at the service was there the gospel of luke. and by the way, lafayette park and pennsylvania avenue right in front of the white house were closed off to the public so they could make that walk across the street. a renewed political push from president obama with the midterm society ju-- midterm vo just 44 days away. he's helping raise fund for democrat joe us is tech. he's hoping they can pull everyone across the finish line and agree on the same message. the senior white house reporter for politico, glen rush, joins me. i know you write about this on line, the opinions of several democratic insiders. we're going to walk through what democrats want to hear from the president. the first thing is stop saying the economic plan is working. peninsula that. >> reporter: that's the biggie. people from james carville to

howard dean to a half dozen other political consultants -- >> governor wilder this morning, same thing. i spoke with him, former governor wilder of virginia. same thing. >> and bill clinton said essentially you got to stop saying this stuff is working. you know, this is a president with a really long list of legislative accomplishments. he clearly wants to get out and tout this stuff. the stimulus is entirely unpopular and not working. so carville, you know, the white house loves when they get suggestions from former clinton people on what to do, right? but i mean, carville says -- and i think he's got a point here, you've got to emphasize the fight and notes in low look in the rearview mirror here -- and not necessarily look in the rearview mirror here. >> and the president says the plan is working, focus, focus, focus. what about the message? >> they've got a message and it's not a placid time. the gulf oil spill probably set them back two to three months. that combined with their self-inflicted damage by dragging out the health care

thing. there's also a sense of sort of like political a.d.d. at 1600. they lurch from topic to topic. there is no coherent strand. the thing you hear more than anything else is it's got to focus on the economy. and to their credit, i think, over the past two weeks, it's sort of as if they flicked on a switch and the president's in campaign mode. >> okay. depends want the president to play the crazy card but carefully? what's this all about? >> reporter: well, this tea party thing, and you are seeing it played out on editorial pages. the "washington post" had a good back and forth today on it. you know, you have a -- a character like, you know, miss o'donnell in delaware. easy to ridicule, easy to make fun of, linda mcmahon in connecticut, the former wwe executive, a lot of folks are trying to capture this tea party energy. you know, democrats like to make fun of them. the bottom line is, they represent a really strong impulse in the american public right now. a lot of anger, a lot of rage.

and democrats would be best. obama and i think the obama administration really understands this, democrats would be best served by not ridiculing these folks but trying to capture some of this energy somehow. >> okay. couple more i want to get through. you can't avoid the issues of taxes. democrats say don't blink on the bush tax cuts, at least until the midterms are over. a key issue, right? >> reporter: yeah, i think this is going to be the big policy issue that defines the race right now. it's a good thing for the democrats. you know, obama has spoken out against extending these cut for the top 2% and 3%. he's got a good deficit-busting argument. it will cost $800 million over ten years. democrats acknowledge on the hill that there's enough resistance to cutting those off that he might -- obama might ultimately have to make a compromise, but they don't want to see it before the midterms. they want this issue to really tie obama to the middle class. >> okay. last piece of advis for democrats. enough boehner, what's this about? >> reporter: they call him the duke of orange. obama, the president made a

bunch of jokes at boehner's expense about the tanning tax. the president needs a foil in this election, clearly. he has to make it a choice, not a referendum on his own presidency. but the time has come, a lot of democrats say, to hand it off to some of his surrogates. it sort of lowers the presidency to be at war with a guy like boehner. >> thanks for running it through, we appreciate that from politico. people in belgium are doing their part to help the environment today with car-free day in the capital city of brussels. car traffic is not being allowed until 7:00 p.m. as people are encouraged to use eco-friendly modes of transportation. it's part of europe's eighth annual week of mobile which focuses on the growing problem of urban traffic and its impact on the environment. [ tires screech ] [ engine revving ] [ drums playing ] [ male announcer ] 306 horsepower. race-inspired paddle shifters. and f-sport-tuned suspension.

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a new twist surrounding a female sports reporter who said players made her feel uncomfortable in the locker room. a published report said that the reporter in question is ainge

rea at the association for women in sports media because the group filed a complaint with the national football league. she said the group added impulsiveli, thisa she's criticized for her choice of clothing on the field. aly fox report for "the philadelphia enquirer," and recently spoke out on one of her columns. i'm curious, don't you think that she -- she tweeted, right, about the nature of her being uncomfortable and guys harassing her. she opened the door for people to come to her defense. >> reporter: it is. and she tweeted from the locker room this they're making me feel uncomfortable. yeah, if she -- if she hasn't, you know, embraced the attention that this has drawn -- every time i turn on the tv there she is talking about it. >> right. >> reporter: i have a hard time believing that she's outraged over anything. >> okay. you know, nfl officials right now are developing a sort of a training program on proper

workplace behavior. all 32 teams will participate. you've reported in so many lockerrooms. what do you think about this resolution? >> reporter: you know, i think the nfl does a good job anyway, even before this. that's why you don't hear of many incidents happening. this is probably the first one in, i don't know, the last ten years. and, you know, they educate their players. things are going to happen when you have a locker room full of 5 5, you know, 20 and 30-something athletes making a lot of money. you know, i think the nfl is responsible and has done a good job up until now, and if, you know, their team need a refresher course, then it's a good thing that they'll to that, too. >> here's what you said in your article about the dress here. you don't have to dress ultraconservatively but you have to be smart if you want to be treated like a girl at a bar, dress like a girl at a bar. if you want to be treated professionally and without incident, cover up. some say a woman should be able to dress any way she want to and not invite this harassment. but are you being more practical

and saying look at your environment? >> reporter: absolutely. know your audience. you know, be responsible. you don't have to dress like you're in a convent, but don't dress super provocatively either. i mean, it's just the nature of the beast. if you don't want to draw extra attention to yourself, you know, dress like a professional. you're going to be noticed in that environment anyway because there are so few females in the room. but don't do anything to add extra attention. >> you know terry o'neil from the national oregganization for women addressed this issue saying it's the way we minimize sexual harassment by putting the ballistic missile on the way women dress. what do you have to say? >> i don't think anybody's minimizing what happened to her. the jets acted unprofessionally. and, you know, what they did was wrong. but in 2010, women have to be accountable for their actions, too. and she should have, you know, i'm sorry if it's unfair that she needs to dress differently, but she does.

>> all right. ashley fox, who i bet always dresses appropriately given the fact you've been with philadelphia, what, 12, 11 years? >> reporter: 11. >> thank you very much. igor's on bermuda's doorstep, and folks are getting a feel for what the hurricane has in store. a live report from the island nation coming up. and wavering support. one of president obama's most influential backers in his run for the white house is not so sure about him now. and i suffer from allergies. [ male announcer ] we asked zyrtec® users what they love about their allergy relief, and what it lets them do. the thing i love most about zyrtec® is that it allows me to be outside. [ male announcer ] we bet you'll love zyrtec®, too -- or it's free. [ vonetta ] it is countdown to marshmallow time. [ woman laughs ]

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